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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Which Fixes Work for You?
Presented by
Ken O’Connor
Assess for Success Consulting
kenoc@aol.com
416 267 4234

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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• consistent
• accurate
• meaningful, and
• supportive of learning?
The Essential Question(s)
How confident are you that the grades
students get in your school are:

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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“The grading box is alive and well,
and in some schools and classrooms,
it is impenetrable. Fair does not
mean equal; yet, when it comes to
grading, we insist that it does.”
Patterson, William “Breaking Out of Our Boxes,” Kappan, April 2003, 572

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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“Those who experience . . . success gain the
confidence needed to risk trying. . .
Students who experience failure lose confidence in
themselves, stop trying, and . . . fail even more
frequently.
As it turns out, confidence is the key to student
success in all learning situations.”
Stiggins, R., Student-Involved Classroom Assessment,
Merrill Prentice Hall, 2001, 43

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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“the primary purpose of . . grades . . . (is) to
communicate student achievement
to students, parents, school administrators,
post-secondary institutions and employers.”
Bailey, J. and McTighe, J., “Reporting Achievement at the Secondary
School Level: What and How?”, in Thomas R. Guskey, (Ed.)
Communicating Student Learning: ASCD Yearbook 1996,
ASCD, Alexandria, VA, 1996, 120

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Professional Judgment
“decisions made by educators, in light of
experience, and with reference to shared
public standards and established policies
and guidelines.”
(Cooper)

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Grades are broken when they -
• include ingredients that distort achievement
• arise from low quality or poorly organized evidence
• are derived from inappropriate number crunching,
and when they
• do not support the learning process.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fixes for ingredients that distort achievement
1. Don’t include student behaviors (effort, participation,
adherence to class rules, etc) in grades; include only
achievement.
2. Don’t reduce marks on “work” submitted late;
provide support for the learner.
3. Don’t give points for extra credit or use bonus points;
seek only evidence that more work has resulted in a
higher level of achievement.
4. Don’t punish academic dishonesty with reduced grades;
apply other consequences and reassess to determine
actual level of achievement.
5. Don’t consider attendance in grade determination;
report absences separately.
6. Don’t include group scores in grades; use only
individual achievement evidence.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fixes for low quality or poorly organized evidence
7. Don’t organize information in grading records by
assessment methods or simply summarize into a single
grade; organize and report evidence by standards/
learning goals.
8. Don’t assign grades using inappropriate or unclear
performance standards; provide clear descriptions of
achievement expectations.
9. Don’t assign grades based on student’s achievement
compared to other students; compare each student’s
performance to preset standards.
10. Don’t rely on evidence from assessments that fail to
meet standards of quality; rely only on quality
assessments.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fixes for inappropriate number
crunching
11. Don’t rely only on the mean; consider
other measures of central tendency and
use professional judgment.
12. Don’t include zeros in grade
determination when evidence is missing or
as punishment; use alternatives, such as
reassessing to determine real achievement
or use “I” for Incomplete or Insufficient
Evidence.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fixes to support the learning process
13. Don’t use information from formative
assessments and practice to determine grades; use
only summative evidence.
14. Don’t summarize evidence accumulated over
time when learning is developmental and will grow
with time and repeated opportunities; in those
instances, emphasize more recent achievement.
15. Don’t leave students out of the grading process.
Involve students; they can - and should - play key
roles in assessment and grading that promote
achievement.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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For each Fix
•What do you think? - PMI
• Where are you/school/district now?
• Where do you want to go -
you/school /district?

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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#1
Don’t include student behaviors
(effort, participation, adherence to
class rules, etc) in grades; include
only achievement.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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#2
Don’t reduce marks on ‘work’
submitted late; provide support
for the learner.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fix #3
Don’t give points for extra credit or
use bonus points; seek only evidence
that more work has resulted in a
higher level of achievement.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fix #4
Don’t punish academic dishonesty
with reduced grades; apply other
consequences and reassess to
determine actual level of
achievement.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fix #5
Don’t consider attendance in grade
determination; report absences
separately.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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#6
Don’t include group scores in grades;
use only individual achievement
evidence.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fix #7
Don’t organize information in
grading records by assessment
methods or simply summarize into a
single grade; organize and report
evidence by standards/learning
goals.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fix #8
Don’t assign grades using
inappropriate or unclear performance
standards; provide clear descriptions
of achievement expectations.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fix #9
Don’t assign grades based on student’s
achievement compared to other
students; compare each student’s
performance to preset standards.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fix #10
Don’t rely on evidence from
assessments that fail to meet standards
of quality; rely only on quality
assessments.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fix # 11
Don’t rely on the mean; consider other
measures of central tendency and use
professional judgment.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fix #12
Don’t include zeros in grade
determination when evidence is
missing or as punishment; use
alternatives, such as reassessing to
determine real level of achievement
or use “I” for Incomplete or
Insufficient evidence.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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#13
Don’t use information from formative
assessments and practice to determine
grades; use only summative evidence.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fix #14
Don’t summarize evidence accumulated
over time when learning is
developmental and will grow with time
and repeated opportunities; in those
instances emphasize more recent
achievement.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Fix #15
Don’t leave students out of the
grading process. Involve students;
they can - and should - play key roles
in assessment and grading that
promote achievement.

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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Grades
should come from
body + performance + guidelines
of standards
evidence
i.e., professional judgment
NOT
just number crunching
a

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© Ken O’Connor, 2004
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For grades that are:
Consistent fix 8
Accurate fixes 1 2 3 4 5 6 9 10
11 12 14
Meaningful fix 7
Supportive of learning fixes 13 14 15